Kids Today
Posted on February 14th, 2013 in Uncategorized |
So I just got a call at work from a PR person for a prominent private bank—you’d know it—and, as one does, I Googled her for a little background information before calling back.
Here’s the picture that popped up from her active Twitter feed:
Cute, right? Not too professional, though.
I’m always confused when younger people who do this sort of thing—and I see it a lot. I had one young woman come in to apply for a position at Worth who described herself on her Facebook page as a Communist. (Did she think I wouldn’t look?)
She didn’t get the job.
People who post this stuff either don’t realize that other people can see it (but they’re so social media savvy!), in which case they look dumb, or they do realize and don’t care, in which case they may be making a political statement (though probably not intentionally) about the arbitrariness of professional and personal life distinctions in the age of no privacy.
Which is all well and good, but somehow I don’t think this private bank, a conservative institution, would appreciate the argument. (And how can the bank not know? Yikes.)
The phenomenon that seems to me to explain this is the idea, which I find common among twenty-somethings and younger, that one should never have to make any sacrifices regarding the expression of personal identity just to make it in the work world.
I think I’d put it the other way around. If you want to make it in the professional world, it’s probably best not to post anything on social media that fundamentally undercuts one’s professional image.
But it’s also possible that I’m just old-fashioned that way…
7 Responses
2/14/2013 1:45 pm
The Globe has a story on this very subject today, full of even more absurd stories.
Todd Van Hoosear, who teaches public relations at Boston University and has long been advising students about using social media wisely, heard about a Boston law firm preparing to hire a young law school grad. But instead of a six-figure job offer, she was confronted with a Facebook picture posted by a friend and discovered during an online search. It had been snapped at a party she’d attended where illegal drugs were present — and visible. The young woman promised to have the photo taken down. Too late, she was told. No job. Job-hunters aim to fix e-trail troubles
I still haven’t bought any Facebook stock, by the way.
2/14/2013 1:47 pm
Damn, I wish this site had a preview option.
Job-hunters aim to fix e-trail troubles
2/14/2013 1:55 pm
Sorry about that–I keep thinking that I’m going to invest in redesigning the site, and then find other ways to spend the money.
Fatherhood is expensive!
2/14/2013 5:42 pm
Richard, it’s a pity that you discriminate against communists. I would have thought that Worth could benefit from the Marxist perspective. Nevertheless, the applicant’s communist self-description was likely made in jest–and therein lies what may worry potential employers. There’s no way to confidently distinguish playful from serious content in a person’s Facebook page, and no way to know whether the person understands that there is some material to which an employee of an organization may gain access that must be treated as confidential. The way in which a person handles social media may be used by employers as a measure of capacity for discretion.
This may not be entirely fair, and most of the young people with whom I’ve discussed social media do seem to appreciate the difference between sharing their own personal information and backstage behavior and sharing the personal information and backstage behavior of others. However, there is one serious caveat–much smartphone posting of images and comments occurs when the person is inebriated or in a disinhibiting social context.
Youth subculture confers status in proportion to the display of disregard for danger and the consequences of risk-taking. This is not new, but it seems to have become more extreme in the last couple decades fueled in part by the opportunity, provided by the internet, to gain notoriety and social mass on a grand scale. Sharing (perhaps even flaunting) one’s personal information and backstage behavior demonstrates confidence, fearlessness, and a lack of seriousness about life.
But how seriously should we take life? Omar Khayyam invited us to “make game of that which makes as much of thee,” but this was to be done in the privacy of “some corner of the Hubbub couch’d.” Old Khayyam was no fool.
2/19/2013 4:34 pm
Is it possible you’re overreacting? If you choose to snoop around for personal information on social media sites then you have to use some artfulness in coming to character judgments. What exactly about the picture is a problem here - that she’s dressed casually? that she’s holding a bottle of wine? Is she supposed to pretend that (a) she doesn’t dress in casual clothes and (b) is a teetotaler in order to make sure you, as a potential employer, etc., do not judge her as, what, a drunken hussy? It’s an interesting question to consider what lengths we’re supposed to go to in order to present the “correct” personal brand to potential employers, business partners, etc. If information is available on social media that undermines how one presents oneself professionally, but that information isn’t illegal or even socially unacceptable (e.g., holding up a bottle of wine), why should employers/business partners really care?
2/20/2013 3:01 pm
I’d say she’s cosying up to a bottle of vodka rather than holding a bottle of wine, Twidiot, though you have a point.
2/21/2013 4:43 pm
On closer examination, I believe you are correct.